Scottish independence. Discuss.

[4thgenphil]

what has always puzzled me is why dont the english/welsh/irish get a say in the matter? it affect us lot south of the boarder aswell and after all we are still one country!

Well yes and no ,we are a union of nations. Just like any unions a divorce can be organised. Although the other sides might not be happy about it which I can understand. If any other nation wanted to vote on a get out that's fair enough. Its what happens in this type of union. It is a political union really hence it was called the 'Union of the Parliaments'.

how about if the english are all for it? i know its difficult to believe but sometimes things that happen up there annoy us lot such as uni fee's

i'm on the fence, i say go for it if you all want it, as long as we the english/welsh/irish dont have to make a severance payment, scotland take their share of debt, they repay some costs of the parliment building and most importanly...........

YOU HAVE TO KEEP ANDY 'THE rhubarb' MURRAY UP THERE!!!!

but i think it would be a shame, i dont think it will work in favour of scotland they assume automatic membership of europe its already been stated this wont happen, this makes trading with europe more difficult.

whats scotlands 2 biggest industries aside oil ? whiskey and tourism!

and on the oil front, i'd be interested to see just how much cash scotland get from it!

like i said i have nothing against the scots, nothing against independance but i think it will be an error that will cost scotland in a decade and england/wales (who cares about them though) and the irish either at the time of independance or in the following collapse.

i hope i'm wrong though!

[Doobie]

The thing that interests me in all this is how the British government would change, with 35 labour and 11 liberals coming from Scotland, only one Conservative and 59 MPs in total, if all else is equal the Conservatives would pretty much be guaranteed a majority. Its no wonder therefore that they have (On the quiet) joined with the Nationalists to encourage and agree to a vote on independence.
Personally I think the Scottish are being conned all the way down the line and if they are daft enough to vote to leave we will be well rid of them. I hope they will see sense though as I think we are both better for the union..

[BMCC]

how about if the english are all for it? i know its difficult to believe but sometimes things that happen up there annoy us lot such as uni fee's

If the English are all for it then fine, I have no problem with that. Uni fees are something that is a devlolved issue in Scotland and as we get a 'block grant' to spend as our parliament see's fit. Just now they see fit to make University education free (Scottish education has always been in the hands of Scotland, the UK parliament makes no decision on this) This is a choice just now and the Scot Gov could choose to spend it differently but has decided not to. Now we'd have to see if this would continue in an independent Scotland.

As for membership of Europe I don't think it has been decided yet. Where have you seen this? Link please.
Oil that's up for debate, I've seen estimates on both sides, who knows who is right?

Who cares about the English, Welsh and Irish. AWW we do its just in a brotherly way (like the one you can't wait to leave home! , only kidding ). I think any collapse will be paid in the usual way through the IMF, world bank etc Of course you'd have to pay your share but same for Scotland if England went toes up. That's the way the world works just now.

[toadster]

LO

I thought independence means keeping all your afairs within you countries borders
It wants to retain the royal family, sterling, the Bank of England and Nato

Hardly what i call independence

IMHO we should stay together

Cheers

Toadster

[mercutio]

The only thing that I would add that if the vote is yes to go that should be it there should be no going back from it and Scotland should be then treated as any other nation state.

[lewd lude lover]

Seriously though, what will Scotland do if the islands vote to be independent from Scotland?

Orkney, shetland and the western iles are not interested in a devolved scotland and they hold most of the oil and gas reserves..........

What would happen if they voted to be a protectorate of the English crown like gurnsey or IOM? England would keep most of 'scotlands' gas and oil...

[mercutio]

would they be allowed to vote to be independent from Scotland?

[lewd lude lover]

yes. they are looking into what they would want to do.

The islands dont consider themselves scottish as it goes. They hold more history with Westminster or Denmark than Edinborough and were only 'give' to scotland by denmark in the 1500's.

They could just as easy stick with us and see scotland in a pretty mess.

[BMCC]

Orkney, shetland and the western iles are not interested in a devolved scotland and they hold most of the oil and gas reserves..........

.

We'd invade and burn them out

Seriously I think they could try this but you'd have to have something specific in law that allowed regions to break away. It's a bit like the Basque region of Spain and there attempt to get independence from Spain. The spainish say there is not legal route for this to happen AFAIK. Orkney and Shetland were given to Scotland by the Norwegians as part of a dowry payment back in the 15th Century.

[lewd lude lover]

but the islanders are not too bothered about scotland or scottish are they? What would scotland do if 95% of all the islander population voted to stay with westminster and the UK? The islands are using this whole thing as leverage to force their own constitutional changes. if they stuck with us they would have freedom of taxation and currency and could define themselves as a separate racial and cultural population base.

1971 saw orkney do just that. 99% voted against an independent scotland.